Friday, April 9, 2010

To air views, or not to...the dilemma continues...

Of late, Pammy, my dear friend has been maintaining an uncanny silence. This is something unusual on her part. So, it’s kinda giving me headache of sort. For a person, who would not take seconds to verbally thrash governments, literally to the ground, for their infamous mis-governance, sports stars failing to bring laurels at international podiums, Bollywood relying on clichéd and hackyened ideas to churn out love stories after love stories, or for that matter, her boss’s “perversion” of digging his nose vigorously while giving a contemplating look in daily early hours office meetings.

As you meet an “often in a hurry” looking Pammy, and before you could manage to greet her, she is on her “marathon” of airing her views.

“Oh! God damn! When would Bangalore roads provide you space to move unhindered? Not in this lifetime. I had a good fight with the traffic constable at M.G. Road, I gave him my piece of mind. He’ll not dare harass anyone from now onwards,” Pammy would be interrupted, as I cleverly offer her a glass of water to bring some kind of semblance to my home, which for the time being has been slightly jolted by Pammy’s entry.

“Thanks dear! You know, I am tired with bull-shit all around us. Hope this ends,” says Pammy, handing back the glass to me.

But, of late, her visits are mostly quiet and she looks grave and sullen, as if under some great “moral” dilemma.

While I fry her favourite onion pakodas, she will watch quietly, smiling and munching one and two in between, and appreciating my culinary skills.

“What’s up? You seem to be upset? Very quiet, not in your chirpy best,” I asked her to know the reason behind almost “sealing” her mouth.

“Why? I am absolutely fine. Okay, you mean my silence? What to say, I am tired, tired of the state of affairs. In a way I am dumbstruck and in a way tired of people, who are always airing views, especially on idiot box. There seems to have come up a new breed of experts, who are ubiquitous on T.V. channels.”


“Let anything happen, be it a natural calamity or crash of the stock market, the expert tribe have expert comments on anything and everything. Every channel will have the same people. If at 9.00 pm news, the X expert is on one channel, he’ll be seen with all smiles at the rival channel’s studio within half an hour later. He’ll talk same, scream same and god knows what not.”

“If some are politicians without any portfolios or former cricketers-turned-commenters with a punjabi twang, others are great Indian journalists and few are page 3 people trying to make sense on why on earth inflation has crossed 17 percent mark in India?”

“I wonder their sense of intelligence and their sense of judgment and judgment of TV channels to bring these experts for every news show? I pity India and their experts. Seeing the state of the experts we could easily make out the state of the nation.”

I got Pammy’s point of view, she does not want to be in the rat race. For Pammy, is a common wo(man), who is rooted to the ground and knows the ground reality pretty well, and well, does not need to beat around the bush.

For a change would TV channels mind inviting commoners like Pammy to their shows.

Actually, her silence is killing me.

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